{"id":57911,"date":"2023-05-15T16:36:23","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T20:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57911"},"modified":"2023-05-15T16:36:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T20:36:29","slug":"movie-review-book-club-the-next-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/05\/movie-review-book-club-the-next-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Book Club: The Next Chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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                In between \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3\u201d (Star-)lording over the competition and \u201cFast X\u201d running over anything in its path comes \u201cBook Club: The Next Chapter.\u201d This film\u2019s marketing department looked at a lineup of second-tier holidays and noticed that nothing was opening the weekend of Mother\u2019s Day, so this got slotted in. It\u2019s as good a release strategy as any \u2013 it\u2019s not like there was some better weekend to release this dreck – but I fear the only bonding children will be doing with their mothers while watching this movie is commiserating over how stupid it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                I did not watch the entirety of \u201cBook Club\u201d from 2018, but I did catch some highlights to prepare for this film. The premise was that a group of four female friends all read \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d and were inspired to take some initiative in their lives. Widow Diane (Diane Keaton) decided that it was okay to pursue a relationship with Mitchell (Andy Garcia). Married Carol (Mary Steenbergen) rekindled her romance with husband Bruce (Craig T. Nelson). Divorcee Sharon (Candace Bergen) decided to give online dating an open-ended try. And maneater Vivian (Jane Fonda) decided that old flame Arthur (Don Johnson) was Mr. Right. In the time between movies, Diane has moved in with Mitchell, Carol lost her restaurant to the pandemic (and nearly lost Bruce to a heart attack), Sharon retired from her federal judgeship, and most importantly, Vivian accepted a marriage proposal from Arthur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The ladies go to Italy for an elaborate bachelorette party. They go shopping, crack PG-13-friendly sex jokes, and practically deplete the country of its wine supply. I don\u2019t think money or expense is mentioned once. In fact, the entire movie seems like little more than an excuse for the cast and crew to enjoy Italy themselves, a theory confirmed by the vacation-y photos that play over the credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Inconvenience finally rears its head when the group\u2019s bags get stolen. The ashes of Diane\u2019s husband were in that bag, as she had planned to spread them on the trip. Other storylines include Sharon having a fling with a philosophy professor (Hugh Quarshie, admittedly the movie\u2019s best surprise \u2013 the main can sing!) and running afoul of a local police officer (Vincent Riotta), Carol meeting up with an old boyfriend (Giancarlo Giannini), and Vivian questioning if she wants to go through with the marriage. I know the movie is ostensibly about the bachelorette party, but let\u2019s just say this isn\u2019t the kind of movie that doesn\u2019t end with a gorgeous destination wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The movie is essentially a cross between \u201cSex and the City\u201d and \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d (readers expecting me to compare it to another movie, I\u2019m getting there, I assure you) with all the wealth\/travel porn and gentle sexual humor. Some of the jokes are truly painful. A typical scene: A waiter tells Carol, \u201cThe chef would like to show you his cucina.\u201d \u201cHis \u2018what?\u2019\u201d Anybody with common sense can tell that he means \u201ckitchen\u201d based on context, but not the characters in this movie. That\u2019s why it doesn\u2019t work nearly as well as \u201c80 for Brady.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                I take back what I said earlier about there not being a better weekend for \u201cBook Club: The Next Chapter.\u201d A better weekend would be one far, far, removed from that similar film \u2013 at least six months away instead of three. It\u2019s not so much that there\u2019s only room for one movie about four senior women (one of whom is played by Jane Fonda), it\u2019s that the other movie was so funny and heartfelt that it draws even more attention to the laziness of this one. I hope you all had a happy Mother\u2019s Day and did something more fulfilling than seeing this lousy movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBook Club: The Next Chapter\u201d is rated PG-13 for some strong language and suggestive material. Its running time is 107 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver                 In between \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3\u201d (Star-)lording over the competition and \u201cFast X\u201d running over anything in its path comes \u201cBook Club: The Next… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":57912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2317],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57913,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57911\/revisions\/57913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}